Prince Royce Questions a Latin Grammy Category With No Bachata

The Best Merengue/Bachata Album category at the 2026 Latin Grammys has five nominees and, by Prince Royce’s count, no actual bachata album among them. Royce raised the issue in an open letter posted to Instagram Stories after his full-length collaboration with Romeo Santos, Better Late Than Never, received no nominations.

Royce made clear he understands awards are subjective and no artist is guaranteed recognition. His objection is structural: a category named for a genre should reflect it. He noted that roughly 15 percent of the music across the nominated albums is bachata, and argued that having Dominican artists in the field does not make the genre represented. “Bachata is a genre, a culture and a history with its own identity,” he wrote, while stressing he was not discrediting merengue.

The album arrived without warning in November 2025, topped Billboard’s Tropical Albums chart and reached No. 2 on Top Latin Albums, with all nine tracks entering Hot Latin Songs. Royce has been nominated 15 times without a win; Santos won the category in 2023 for Fórmula, Vol. 3. Latin Recording Academy CEO Manuel Abud told Billboard that nominations are decided by the membership and he could not explain why particular works were not recognized.

Royce’s complaint moves past his own omission. “Bachata deserves more than just being included on paper,” he said. “It deserves representation. It deserves to be understood. And it deserves respect.”